Cyberpunk: Spartan Walker

There was an ambush, no doubt about it.

He stopped and listened carefully. He heard the gasps of at least half a dozen Grunts, and then a high-pitched, restless squeak, the kind of noise the monsters make when excited.

This made Tommy relieved. It seemed that there were no elite warriors here. If there were elite warriors around, the Grunts would be so silent and wouldn't be so undisciplined.

Tommy was still a little hesitant, though. His shields were down and his armor was damaged. He felt as if several years had passed, and he was fighting almost non-stop. He had to admit that his endurance had reached its limit.

A good warrior will always carefully assess the tactical situation - and currently, his situation seems to be very serious. If he was hit by a plasma beam, his arms and shoulders would suffer third-degree burns, which would completely render him incompetent, giving the Grunts an opportunity to kill him.

Tommy bent his injured shoulder and immediately felt a sharp pain. He put aside the pain and concentrated on how to win this battle. He did not fall against the strongest warriors of the Covenant army, and he did not lose in the decisive battle with the Flood. It would be a great irony for him to die at the hands of a small group of Grunts.

Tommy, Ellie said over the comm channel, are you there? I'm going to implement one last plan.

Tommy whispered, Almost.

Be safe. Your armor is broken and you can no longer move freely in dangerous environments.

He turned on his status light to reply to Ellie, then concentrated on the problem at hand. The use of grenades will not work. Plasma grenades or fragmentation grenades exploding near the reaction coil will destroy their protective shells.

That leaves only trapping - outsmarting.

Maybe he'll still have to use grenades. Tommy placed a plasma grenade in the center of the elevator, then took out the remaining two fragmentation grenades and put them aside. He groped along the ladder wall, and soon found what he needed - as thin as Hair fiber optics. He pulled out a three-meter section.

The engineer was furious at his destruction, and like a child whose toy car had been stepped on, he swung his slender tentacles and slapped Tommy's armor.

Hmm. No feeling at all.

Tommy was too lazy to pay attention to it, and casually pushed the tentacles away, then threaded the optical fiber into the pull ring of the fragmentation grenade, fixed the end of the pull ring ten centimeters from the floor, and the grenade was stuck in the crack of the door.

The trap is set, now only one bait is missing.

He placed a plasma grenade on the far wall of the ladder, pressed the orange button on it, and the grenade lit up immediately.

He quickly squeezed into the corridor. Four seconds left before the explosion. There's still gravity in this part of the ship, so Tommy can't levitate. There were many shadows in the corridor, and after blending into it, he continued to rush forward along the corridor wall for two meters, and then stopped on the inside of the first support.

Three seconds.

A Grunt screamed Wow! and then the plasma energy beam shot toward the center of the corridor with a hissing sound.

Two seconds.

Tommy fumbled and took the Engineer off his shoulder, pressing it firmly against the intersection of the bracket and the gallery wall.

One second.

The engineer chirped for a while, then became quiet, perhaps sensing what was about to happen.

The plasma grenade exploded. Accompanied by roars and vibrations, a bright light flashed, illuminating the entire corridor and the nuclear reactor room in the distance.

The rest of the Grunts started shouting too. Plasma beams and needle bombs filled the passage, and all of them were fired into the elevator.

Then the Grunts stopped shooting. One of them carefully emerged from behind the box and crawled forward. It let out a nervous laugh, like a dog barking, and then, without encountering any resistance, it waddled toward the elevator.

Four more followed, and they passed Tommy, unaware that he was hiding behind the supports of the corridor wall, less than half a meter away from them.

They approached the elevator, sniffed it with their noses, and then walked in.

When the grenade pulls the hairline and pulls off the tab of the fragmentation grenade, it makes a soft bang sound.

Tommy quickly covered the engineer with his body.

A Grunt screamed, fear in his voice. They turned and ran.

Two grenades exploded simultaneously, blocking the exit of the elevator. The vibration swept through the entire corridor, with pieces of flesh and metal flying everywhere.

A needle gun slid over and stopped a meter away from Tommy. It was cracked and the energy coil was dull. Tommy grabbed it—and as he bent down, a beam of plasma whizzed past his head. He retreated into the shelter formed by the bracket and tried to activate the weapon, but unfortunately, it did not respond at all.

The engineer wrapped a tentacle around the needle gun and pulled it away from Tommy, opening the gun's casing. The end of one of its tentacles splits into hundreds of needle-thin cilia, which sweep back and forth over the inner workings. After a moment it reassembled the weapon, holding it tightly before handing it to Tommy.

The acupuncture gun started buzzing, and the transparent crystal shone with cold purple light.

\u003cThank you. \u003eHe gestured carefully.

The engineer chirped, What I should do. \u003e

Tommy walked to the edge of the stand. He was waiting for his chance, holding the needle gun tightly in his hand, his body motionless. He had plenty of time, he told himself. There is no need to rush and let the enemy come to your door. Always.

A Grunt poked his nose out of the box, trying to determine where his enemies were hiding. It fired randomly down the corridor, hitting nothing.

Tommy still huddled behind the stand, and at the same time stretched out the needle gun and started shooting. A series of needles whizzed down the corridor, pricking the Grunt. It fell back, and the pinball exploded. In the loud noise, flying purple fragments crackled scattered all over the floor.

Tommy remained still, listening carefully. There was nothing but the low hum of the reactor.

He walked back down the corridor to the reaction room, holding the needle gun to his chest as he swept the room. He paid special attention to whether there were subtle fluctuations in the air, fearing that there were elite warriors wearing stealth suits hidden inside.

A slight sound caught Tommy's ears, and he subconsciously ducked to the side. Sure enough, another Spartan Hunter appeared out of thin air.

The pattern on the armor of this elite warrior is not as complicated as the one Tommy encountered on the bridge, and the structure of the helmet is simpler, closer to the shape of the red-armored elite warrior.